Nothing grabs your attention quite like a hydro bill for $437, when you haven’t used any electricity.

Hydro One, it seems, still has a few hiccups to iron out as it switches customers over to smart meters. But the company insists the bill we got last week for the family cottage was an anomaly that hasn’t happened widely around the province.

Let’s hope so – though I’ve had a few other calls from startled householders with similar issues. And I probably didn’t pay enough attention to them, until my wife gasped at the latest bill for the cottage.

Hydro One said they had estimated our consumption from March 21 to July 9 at 18 kilowatt hours a day, or 1,710 kwh in total.

That seemed awfully high because a year ago, on a slightly shorter time period (March 21 to June 24) the actual consumption was zero. This year, for one reason or another, we’d used it very little prior to July 1.

Through the off-season, we’re accustomed to paying about $80 per billing period, the standard charge simply for having service.

A note on the latest bill acknowledged that it was an estimate. “When your actual consumption is available, we will issue you an adjusted bill reflecting your actual usage and costs,” it said.

Still, coughing up $437 while Hydro One gathered its information seemed a bit hefty. And there was the reminder that any delay in settling the account would result in a later payment penalty.

The company’s call centre was on the ball more than its billing department.

Rebecca, the call centre staffer, quickly agreed that something seemed odd. (No, I didn’t tell her I work for the Star.) She suggested sending a payment in line with our usual bill, with a note quoting her name and employee number so that any late payment penalty would be waived until the account was straightened out.

Thank you, Rebecca.

Still, it was a bit of a head-scratcher. The province’s utilities have spent a billion dollars installing “smart meters” across the province in order to have up-to-the-minute data on power use.

Why the need for estimates at all? And why such a high estimate? Even during the summer last year, when the cottage was being used, the average consumption was 13 kwh a day. Why boost the estimate 38 per cent even from our peak usage?

“Your situation is a pure anomaly from what I’ve been able to deduce,” Hydro One spokesman Daffyd Roderick said when asked what had happened.

Our account was being transferred to time of use rates, he said, and there was an information glitch.

Unable to get actual data, the system plugged in an estimate based on what the company calls the “standard rate class.”

It turns out that our un-modern cottage doesn’t draw much power.

“You are 15 per cent of the rate class standard usage,” Roderick said. Plugging in the standard formula churned out an anomalous bill.

He said that few customers have been caught the same way, and insisted that my suspicion that Hydro One was making a cash grab from its customers is unfounded.

As for the estimated bill, he said only two to three per cent of bills for seasonal properties are now based on estimates – down from about 50 per cent prior to the advent of smart meters.

Sounds good. And in our case no harm was done. The Hydro One call centre did its job well. But it seems Hydro One might have a better system of catching and double-checking anomalous bills before they’re sent out, instead of putting the onus on the customer to catch the error.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.